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What is Unlimited Thought?
Baseball, Basketball and Hanger Allegory
Abstract Thought on Western and Eastern Philosophy
By Lance Winslow
Online Think Tank
February 14, 2007
You are standing in a Giant Hanger, used to build Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets, the hanger is empty
and you are overwhelmed by the size. You start walking around and come to a Baseball hanging
from the ceiling on a fishing line about elbow level. You walk up to it and you say why is this
here?
You surmise since it is embossed with the insignia "WP" that it is indeed a representation of "All
of Western Philosophy" and it occupies that much space in the potential for human thought
within the mile long aircraft hangar, which is as wide as a football field. Why is it so small you
think to yourself?
You come to the conclusion that since about 100 AD the boundaries of thought have been bound
and constrained by religion making Western Philosophy limited scope. For nearly 2000 years it
has been stifled and unable to escape the confines or expand and there it sits. It seems to move
around a little bit and spins ever so slowly due to the ventilation in the hanger.
You stop and look far off in the distance and you see another ball hanging from the hanger
ceiling at about the same height you think, but you cannot tell from where you are? You walk
towards it still thinking about the Baseball and how small it looks in comparison to the whole
hanger. And how someone could literally hit it out of the park with a baseball bat and it would
barely even reach the other side of the hanger.
After about 5 minutes of walking you reach the next ball hanging from the ceiling on a bungee
cord and you see it is a basketball which is just out of reach, but if you try to jump real high you
might be able to touch it, as it is slightly higher off the ground than you thought from a distance.
You can read the side of the Basketball and it says "EP" on it and you assume this is Eastern
Philosophy, which seems to also be limited, although much bigger than that of the baseball in
size. It moves up and down a bit but not too much. You keep walking to the end of the hangar
and the door opens slightly and you see the Sun has gone down now and there are only stars out.
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You leave the hangar and think; I wonder if those philosophies will ever get past their barriers
and join in the unlimited thought of the whole hanger or if they will ever leave that giant cave or
hanger and see what awaits them out here, outside that massive hanger amongst the stars. You
think that there is a whole new world waiting for them if they dare to take it.
The next day you go to the beach and pick up a handfull of sand and let it sift through your hands
until there is only one grain of sand remaining. You think about the basketball and baseball and
wonder which one it could be? You hold the grain of sand up to the sunlight and move it around
your fingers and consider it is only a spec of sand on an endless beach and you laugh to yourself.
Then you think, I wonder if this is what Lance is saying about all those Gurus of Philosophy and
Academics caught inside the balls of their created belief systems. Once outside the confines of
these philosophical institutions you think, I must be getting closer to Unlimited Thought.
Part II
Looking Ahead; A Plan for
Modern 21st Century Philosophy
In the Philosophical review of Eastern and Western Philosophy we noted that these individual
philosophies could be depicted as representing a basketball and a baseball inside a giant empty
hanger where Boeing 747s are built, each hanging on a string very far apart. In Part II we take
the study and critique of Modern Philosophy a step further.
The goal of this allegory is to show that in the Twenty-First Century the human mind must
expand and cut through or pop the linear philosophical thoughts of the past 10,000 years in
Eastern Philosophy and the past 5,500 years of Western Philosophy. In doing this we examine
each of the philosophies and the small spheres of thought that they represent.
The baseball (representing Western Philosophy) is tightly wound and layered upon each
consecutive historical philosopher’s mindset. Thus, laying down another wrap of string around
the sphere and often unwrapping a bit only to re-wrap it another way, until eventually it is
completed; where a cover has been placed on the academic domain of Western Philosophy and
laced shut, thus completing the confines of its definitions and categorizations of types of thought
avialable for consideration.
The only way to expand Western Philosophy in future periods is to cut the baseball apart or start
playing baseball inside the Boeing Aircraft hanger until the players hit the ball to each corner and
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every possible 3D space inside. After the baseball has played inside the hangar for hundreds of
more years of continuous play can we be sure it has crossed every piece of open space inside. Is
this a worthy pursuit or is there another way? Can we accomplish all this now in the present
period?
If we continue on the present path then once the baseball representing Western Philosophy has
completed this task of exploring the hanger do we retire this warn out baseball and stick it in a
closet or would we then take it into outer space and let it lose in orbit around the Earth in geo-
sync so it can experience a greater realm of thought.
There is another option we can cut the baseball apart and separate the layers of string and free the
philosophy from its own belief systems and lines of thought. But in doing so the debris be left on
the ground only to be cleaned up and trashed by the janitorial teams the next evening. Upon
entering the dump these cut strings would become one with the Earth again to be decomposed
and recycled in yet another form, perhaps a hundred years later. This does not seem to be an
option worthy of pursuit either.
The Eastern Philosophy which is represented as a Basket Ball that hangs on a bungee cord in the
hanger needs to be set free also. It could be taken and used to pay basketball, but could never see
all the corners or heights of the hanger no matter how long the game was played.
We could take the Basketball to outer space on a Shuttle, but once we set it free into open space
it would pop. Eastern Philosophy would be one with the Universe but never be able to come back
into the box or hanger to experience the reality of this realm or the happenings in the hanger,
where great things are built perhaps to deliver the next philosophical theories into space or where
rocket ships are made for off world colonies for the human race?
If we try to combine Eastern and Western Philosophies we either get a bump on the basketball
making it difficult to play with and unable to bounce (ying and yang) correctly, as it would veer
off on weird tangents, eventually the basket ball would become flat and ruined and the air would
seep out to visit the hanger’s ventilation system, yet still be stuck within the system unable to
escape the hanger.
If we pick the best of both philosophies by deconstructing them and re-constructing them into
one, we end up with a different sized, which is not hollow (representing external thought) or
thick inside (representing Western Philosophy), but rather spongy. We can use this to play both
baseball and basketball, as it would be bigger than a baseball and smaller than the basketball, but
in the end we could play neigher sport very well. Would we design a new sport; to what avail?
Thus, if we are to expand human thought into the 21 st Century then we need to embark on a
new line of thinking based on unlimited thinking, not the confines of culture or religion of the
past. A philosophy not limited to dead white men, men of faith or 10,000 years of ancient
traditions or customs. It is time to expand the human mind and break down the barriers of
thought, which are encapsulated in tiny spheres or the brains of men.
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The Modern 21st
Century Philosophers must go beyond all of this and discover thought that is
not bordered by time, energy, light or space and one which can work in any dimension where it
is placed or in all simultaneously when necessary. Indeed the new philosophy will need to satisfy
a theory of everything. We must focus to achieve these leaps in human thought. Think on it.
